Good StrategyBad Strategy
One book, placed in its field — what Rumelt, Richard's book gets right, where it goes further than the rest, and what the rest of the field adds.
Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide · bicycle.guide/guides/profile-good_strategy_bad_strategy_rumelt
Arrow keys or swipe to move · N for notes · F for full screen
Good StrategyBad Strategy
One book, placed in its field — what Rumelt, Richard's book gets right, where it goes further than the rest, and what the rest of the field adds.
Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide · bicycle.guide/guides/profile-good_strategy_bad_strategy_rumelt
The problem
Challenge Overcome erodes when it is left to instinct instead of method.
You were taught the moves piecemeal, never the whole model.
Good StrategyBad Strategy · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
The model
- 01Quality of Diagnosis
- 02Clarity of Guiding Policy
- 03Coherence of Actions
- 04Resource Focus
- 05Coordinated Effort
- 06Challenge Overcome
- 07Superior Performance
- 08Sustained Advantage
Good StrategyBad Strategy · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Step 1 of 5 · Quality of Diagnosis
A good diagnosis names one pivotal challenge and explains its nature — not a catalogue of everything wrong.
Misconception
Practitioners treat diagnosis as listing all the problems and threats facing the organization, believing a thorough environmental scan is a diagnosis.
Reality
A diagnosis is an act of judgment that discards most facts to isolate the one or two pivotal obstacles; comprehensiveness is the enemy, because a list of twelve challenges is a confession that you have not actually diagnosed anything.
Good StrategyBad Strategy · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Step 2 of 5 · Clarity of Guiding Policy
A guiding policy is a bridge between diagnosis and action — it responds to a specific obstacle, not to abstract ambition.
Misconception
Practitioners think a guiding policy is a goal or an aspiration ('become the market leader,' 'delight customers'), so they set targets and call them strategy.
Reality
A guiding policy is a method of coping with the diagnosed obstacle — it says how you will engage the problem and, critically, which large classes of action it rules out; goals name a destination while a policy names the road and the roads you refuse.
Good StrategyBad Strategy · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Step 3 of 5 · Coherence of Actions
Coherence means actions that are mutually reinforcing, not just individually justified.
Misconception
Practitioners believe coherence means alignment — getting everyone to agree and pursue the same broad goals in parallel.
Reality
Coherence is about the interlocking design of actions where one commitment makes another more effective; parallel effort toward a shared goal can still be incoherent if the actions don't reinforce, and true coherence often requires some actions that look locally suboptimal.
Good StrategyBad Strategy · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Step 4 of 5 · Resource Focus
Focus means concentrating force at the pivot point, not allocating proportionally across priorities.
Misconception
Leaders believe fairness and balance require distributing resources proportionally across all business units and priorities to avoid neglecting anyone.
Reality
Strategy is inherently unfair to most claims on resources; concentration works precisely because it starves the many to overwhelm the pivot point, and the discipline is in saying no to good opportunities, not just bad ones.
Good StrategyBad Strategy · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Step 5 of 5 · Coordinated Effort
Coordinated effort is the behavioral proof of coherence — if units drift into silos, inspect the coherence of your design first.
Misconception
Managers assume coordination is achieved through more meetings, dashboards, and cross-functional committees that keep everyone informed.
Reality
Coordination is imposed by the coherent design itself — when a clear policy makes obvious what each unit should do, you need far less lateral communication; heavy coordination machinery is usually a symptom of an incoherent underlying strategy.
Good StrategyBad Strategy · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Good StrategyBad Strategy · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
The cheat sheet
- Quality of DiagnosisA good diagnosis names one pivotal challenge and explains its nature — not a catalogue of everything wrong.
- Clarity of Guiding PolicyA guiding policy is a bridge between diagnosis and action — it responds to a specific obstacle, not to abstract ambition.
- Coherence of ActionsCoherence means actions that are mutually reinforcing, not just individually justified.
- Resource FocusFocus means concentrating force at the pivot point, not allocating proportionally across priorities.
- Coordinated EffortCoordinated effort is the behavioral proof of coherence — if units drift into silos, inspect the coherence of your design first.
- Challenge OvercomeThe strategy's proximate success is whether the diagnosed obstacle receded, not whether the plan was completed.
- Superior PerformancePerformance is superior only relative to a defensible benchmark — competitors, industry, or your own baseline.
- Sustained AdvantageAdvantage endures only where imitation is costly — identify your isolating mechanism or you have no moat.
Good StrategyBad Strategy · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Sources
- Good StrategyBad Strategy — Rumelt, Richard
Good StrategyBad Strategy · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide